Awkward Guests

Walter sees footprints leading away from his front door. Why does he not see footprints leading up to it?

Walter inadvertently puts an ironically good interpretation on a bad sign. Imagine an alternative: What might have happened if Walter had opened the door when Angus knocked? Would the consequence be tragic or comic?

Linklater is said to be an agent of a “Bureau.” What is the Bureau, and what is its mission?

Zachary Dean adds an element of tragedy to the story. What are the comic elements?

How did Linklater get trapped in his “Groundhog Day” type of time loop? How did the story get started in the first place?

What eventually happens to Linklater? Suppose he had refused his mission and never done anything at all with Travis Burbage. Would the story have ended any differently? Does Linklater’s mission logically cancel itself out?

How do you read “The Thirteenth Traveler”? As a story with an earnest moral or as a spoof of the time-travel genre?